Hourglass Handicrafts
by zeroseconds
Summary: Have times changed? John returns from his trip to Australia with a haunted souvenir and visits the office in the hopes that Naru is willing take his case. Unfortunately he finds the director's seat empty... Ch2: Enter Madoka.
1. Chapter 1: Down under

**Author's note:** Well well well, something featuring John, as he is sorely missing from the fanfic 'Twofold', which will take a while before the next chapter is out, so it seems. Our dear John doesn't have enough fics, so he gets his own, and a trilogy at that. The others will show up later. The entire fic is done and ready to be uploaded, but as this happens in the same universe and during the events of Twofold, I want to finish up that one first.

**Disclaimer for the entire trilogy: **don't own Ghost Hunt, just playing.

**Hourglass Handicrafts**

**Part 1: Down under**

_30th of June_

When John had been told by his fellow SPR colleagues that they would go on a week long vacation in early July, he'd profusely apologized to them as he wouldn't be able to accompany them. Alas, he had his parents' twenty-fifth anniversary to attend to (at which Takigawa rudely yawned, earning a shove from Matsuzaki Ayako in progress) and it would have been a shame not to celebrate this with his entire family. Siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends and acquaintances; he hadn't seen some of them in years, so it was the perfect opportunity to leave Japan for a little while for Australia.

Although, yes, he desperately wanted to go, John wouldn't have minded to enjoy a trip to a vacation resort with his co-workers to know them better without any relevancies to exorcism or ghost hunting as the boss would call it.

(Later he would learn from Takigawa and friends it didn't turn out that way at all.)

_3rd of July_

Yet here he was, somewhere down the globe, sitting in front of a cheesed off and ragged man. The odd appearance at the party held a bottle of beer in one hand and in the other lugging an antique hourglass. His own father egged on him to take care of that 'earbasher', who was supposedly an old acquaintance...

(John had never seen him before.)

"Never reckoned little Johnie would grow up to become a priest. ...You came back from Japan I heard? Is that how you got so polite? Y'know," the man said as he mocked a bow.

John inwardly sighed, but his face showed a nervous smile. "Perhaps so...?"

"If anything, I'm glad you came down under, 'cause I need your help with this."

He handed over the hourglass. It had whitish, light gray sand, the exorcist noted mentally.

"Um... this?"

"It's yours now. This thing got me and a lot of other people into heaps of trouble."

John wondered why in the world he had to accept an item like that.

"...How come it does?"

"Cursed! The thing's cursed! You're a priest, an exorcist at that, you should know!" The man shrieked, almost coughing on the booze. Annoyance was all over his face.

"Easy there, sir!" The younger Australian nearly shrunk in his seat, and he began to understand where the man was coming from.

"Johnie, I kid you not," he said, before taking a sip from his beer.

"Have you tried destroying it?"

"Don't you think I tried to? It wouldn't burn away!"

"I see," John frowned, and started to bombard the man with questions, "Where does it come from? What wood is it made of? How old is it?"

"..China? Cherry wood. No idea," he shrugged.

"...I'm sorry, but that's too little information to work with."

"I lost all my pennies in one week, strange stuff happenin' at home, don't think I got any time or interest for this. In any case, the bastard who gave it to me got all fussed about his fortune disappearing. He didn't tell me, that's why I wasn't iffy about it at first. Want his phone number?"

"Ah yes..."

He was instantly pushed a business card in his other hand.

"He should know more."

Before he could read the name of that person, his attention was brought to something else.

"Oh, and how about reading what's written on the bottom? Can't read it."

"Huh? If you can't read, then I-"

"Take a look at it kid, they told me you know that stuff."

John frowned and did as he was told to. At the side there was a small metal plate.

Oh...

"I see. In Japanese it is read as s_unadokei teshigoto_."

"In English Johnie, I don't speak moon language."

"That would be... 'hourglass handicrafts'."

"Helpful, very helpful."

"It's no problem."

"'was being sarcastic! I was hopin' for somethin' more specific like a real brand or the shop's name. Get it?"

"Oh," the young priest nervously smiled at the man, "right."

"...Can I trust you with this thing?"

"No worries! I'll take care of this."

"Great! Your mum invited me to this party and she told me about you having experience with this kind of... stuff. Well, I didn't want to leave this in incapable and uninformed hands like all my predecessors," he winked.

"It's no problem at all," the two rose to their feet.

"Thanks mate. C'me here," he nearly choked the younger Australian in his embrace. "This was really helpful."

With that he left, disappearing into the party crowd. John never saw the man again... or the wallet that had been stolen from him.

**To be continued...**


	2. Chapter 2: Rising Sun

**Hourglass Handicrafts**

**Part 2: Rising Sun**

His wallet containing his ticket back to Japan had been stolen from him. Needless to say he had a mouthful from his parents. At that he wished he could crawl into a hole and hide until the storm was over. His thoughts continued to return to the hourglass. Had he just been tricked into this because of what that man told him? Or could this be the curse that he had been warned for? John didn't know, but later he did have to admit that what the man had told him was more than just a regular story. Before he wanted to attempt an exorcism on the object, he wanted to make sure of a few things first. Whether it was really related to Japan and the story behind it. Although the priest wasn't sure he could do this alone...

The day after John came back from doing groceries with his younger sister, their mother was already waiting for them at the front lawn.

"John!" She called out and seemed shaken.

Did something happen while they were gone?

"Mum?" He asked, visibly worried.

"Come inside!"

"Eh?"

"It's that freaking hourglass!"

John raised an eyebrow and motioned his sister to stay outside. He went inside the house followed her to the guest room, while his mother rambled in hysterics on how she heard strange noises in there. He opened it, only to find...

"It has to be some curse written on there! It's out to curse us!" The mother clung to her son as she pointed at the paper on the desk. John gulped as he removed the hourglass on top of the paper so he could read it.

Written in polite and clumsy Japanese with a pencil were the words "Take me back to Japan".

Next to the paper was his wallet.

_6__th__ July_

Early in the morning, John stood in front of the door of the SPR office. He knocked twice, but no one answered from the inside. Then he remembered they had gone on a vacation trip and sighed. There would be no one to help him out and he didn't know when everyone would be back...

Silently he started to leave, but was startled by the sound of a door opening and someone speaking.

"...John-san? Is that you?"

The voice belonged to Mori Madoka.

"Ah, good morning... Mori-san," he smiled at the lady.

"Hello! Sorry, I was in Lin's office so I didn't hear you knock at first," Madoka explained, smiling back at him. "Come on in, I'll make you some tea!"

"It's no problem, and thank you."

It turned out that she was taking care of the office while the others had gone on a vacation trip.

-.-

After he was done telling his story, John took a sip of his tea.

"I see," Madoka eyed the hourglass curiously, "and you assume it is from Japan."

"Yes, have a look at the bottom... and this note."

He placed the paper with the scribbled Japanese on the coffee table.

"Interesting," she said as she stared at the metal plate and then at the note, "I'd love to help, but I wasn't allowed by Naru to accept any cases even though I'm his master."

Madoka huffed a little.

"Ah, I suppose it can wait," John replied.

A pensive look crossed her face, and then brightened up. An uncomfortable smile appeared on his face.

"Well, why don't you offer to help me with this?" Madoka mischievously said.

The young priest recoiled.

"Eh?! But Mori-san, you just said-"

"I can overrule anything without his permission, and I only agreed, because I didn't have any help from any exorcists or mediums... That's different now," she winked at him.

"Oh, well. I'm free tomorrow and after that during the evenings... I guess," he scratched the back of his head.

"That's great! Why don't we start with the lead."

"Yeah, I didn't have any time to call that person, I suppose I could do that now."

John took out the business card, belonging to a man named Edward Leigh who lived in Glasgow. He dialed the number on his cell phone, but no one picked up. Oh right, timezones! It had to be in the middle of the night where Leigh was living. He left a voice mail saying he would call back tomorrow.

Madoka frowned.

"John?" She said inquiringly and he looked up at her.

"Yes?"

"Why did you use your phone?"

"Ah... well," his voice sounded nervous.

The woman breathed in and then loomed over him with ease.

"John! I know you're being kind, but isn't calling abroad expensive enough?" She complained, putting her arms on her hips.

"I-I don't want to be much of a bo-" Then he got cut off by Madoka who snatched his cellphone away, putting it in her pocket...

"I'm sorry John sweetie, but until this case is done I'll be taking care your phone," she smiled sweetly all of sudden.

His jaw dropped. "Eh, Mori-san?! What do you mean?!"

"I assume you'll be making a lot of calls, but I'm not allowing you to do anymore of this," she started to babble, "you'll get the office and everything in it, including the office phone. Naru is going to pay for the costs. I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Isn't that a great deal?" Madoka plastered a big smile on her face.

_'But... my cellphone!'_ John thought hopelessly and hung his head, ...and he was pretty sure Shibuya-san _would_ mind, but for all he knew Mori Madoka was _above_ the Shibuya Psychic Research, and that included him too. The priest began to feel how the boss felt around her, she had a way of doing things... that's for sure.

First of all, how did he get himself into this mess?!

Then he heard the ring tone of his cellphone chirping. Someone was calling him? Just who would that be?

"Oh! Speaking of the devil," Madoka exclaimed brightly as she glanced at the display. "Hello?"

John raised an eyebrow. No, he does _not_ have the devil on his list of contacts.

"Yes, it's me. - He's right here. - Oh, I stole it from him."

John nearly facepalmed at this.

"With his permission of course!" She beamed, then followed by a scowl on her face. "Naru! Don't talk like that.- Hmpf! John just returned from Australia and has some other things to take care of-"

It was Shibuya-san?

"Alright! Oh? Naru? ...he hung up," Madoka frowned at the cellphone inquiringly, and then returned to the Australian with yet another bright smile. "Well John, that settles it. Naru even gave us the permission to take the case!"

John had to sweatdrop. _'It really didn't sound like that at all..'_

-.-

The two had started compile a list of known hourglass makers in the whole of Japan, which was surprisingly a lot. Although they didn't know where to start looking for they had very little clues.

In the afternoon John made another call to the British Edward Leigh who seemed quite hostile to the priest in the beginning due to mentioning the hourglass, but the conversation ended up in tears and a prayer for restoration as the emotional man explained how his company and his family had gone into fiscal problems, and that he was almost declared insane for thinking the hourglass was haunted.

Fortunately Leigh knew from whom he had bought the item and unfortunately it turned out that the person lived in the United States, so he had to wait quite a bit until it was in the evening. In the mean time he helped out Madoka with sorting some files and some small works.

When the time came he made the phone call to someone named Howard, who later referred to his aunt, the middle aged Jane Arrington who lived in Canada. They too said it was cursed or haunted as they experienced some hauntings and of course stolen goods and other financial difficulties. Jane even mentioned to have seen the ghost of an old Asian man and added that she was gifted the item from a good friend and later gave it to her nephew, because the item crept her out. Howard had sold it, simply because he needed the money.

Jane's old friend was someone called Angela Bohm, who lived in a Germany. At first John had a bit of trouble talking to the lady, as his German wasn't that great in the slightest, and Bohm's English was a little stiff. It turned out Angela asked him to call back the day after as she was quite busy.

Thus John ended his long day at the SPR office.

_7__th__ July_

In the late afternoon John returned to the office finding Madoka sorting the files in Naru's office and made his calls again.

A long story short, it seemed the hourglass had come from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Britain. He found it amazing that all the previous owners could remember from whom they received the thing. Of course it wouldn't be hard _not_ to remember an hourglass which haunted and stole money.

The most peculiar had to be the Hosaka family living in Britain, the lady of the house, Hosaka Junko, explained she got it from her brother-in-law who lived in Japan. She said she often saw the ghost of an angry Japanese man she'd never seen before, but not even her husband would believe her. Like most of the other owners she seemed a bit wary to give a stranger the contact person's details, but in the end fell for John's kindness.

He knew he was getting close to the truth, and much closer to home now. He just needed to call Masuda Akihiro.

When Masuda heard all of the stories, he couldn't believe what John was saying. He claimed he never experienced any hauntings or other difficulties when he had the hourglass and hung up on him abruptly.

That day John went back to home in disappointment.

8th July

In the morning a call came from Masuda, and the priest immediately went over after having been told by Father Toujo (Madoka still had his cell phone). Masuda apologized for what he'd said to John yesterday, after having made a crank call to his sister-in-law, Junko, who indeed confirmed that what John said was true and she had yelled at him a lot for hanging up on the poor guy. The exorcist said he didn't mind at all. It was of course strange to trust a stranger on the phone and an heavily accented one at that.

Masuda said he never thought of the hourglass as anything unusual, but it was valuable enough to sell it to Junko as she collected old things. He informed John of where his father had apparently bought the item, which was not far from where the church was. Masuda's curiosity had been peeked enough to ask his elderly father what was going on with the thing (he would call in later).

John decided to visit that particular shop, and surprisingly the business had remained after so many years. It appeared that even though it was named Hourglass Handicrafts, it sold other types of things as well... clock towers to even charms, dolls, glass decorations, and many more. A rarity.

"Welcome!" An old man said from the very back in the shop, he seemed to be in his late sixties. "How can I help you?"

"Ah good evening, I come here concerning a certain hourglass," the Australian smiled nervously.

"Hourglass, eh? They're right over there."

"Oh no, I need to talk about this particular one, sir," he showed it to the man, "by any chance, would you know about this one?"

"Of course I would!" The man exclaimed, a lack of a front teeth showing. "I made the thing. Look over there!" He pointed to the very left side of the hourglass gallery.

"They're the same!" John's eyes went wide. A duplicate! _'So very close now..!'_

"But..." the man held his hand under his chin, watching the one the young man was holding, "there is a difference..."

"Eh?"

"See the sand's color?"

"Yeah, this one looks a bit lighter," John noted, "it must have been over thirty years old. Isn't it because its age?"

"Nope, it looks like completely different type of sa-" The man cut the sentence off as if he realized something. "Hmm, speaking of which... there was a strange request I did sell an empty hourglass once in the sixties, to... that old man was quite the eccentric one.."

"Does the name Masuda ring a bell?"

The man raised an eyebrow and then after much thought, he heaved a deep sigh, before grimacing.

"Young man, you should be bit more respectful to your elders. Get this one back to where it belongs."

John blinked.

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you're saying."

"If you know the Masuda family you should return it to them."

"Huh? But..."

The man waved him off and disappeared into the back of the store.

-.-

When he returned to the office he found Madoka cleaning Naru's office. John was a bit dazed and confused by store owner's words.

"John, could you move to Lin's office? I'm cleaning Naru's office and this room next, it's going to be a bit noisy."

"Ah sure," he brought the report and hourglass along and went to sit there, writing down what happened at the store. All he had to do was wait for a phone call.

Fifteen minutes later.

"Sorry John, could you go to Naru's office this time?" Madoka smiled with a vacuum cleaner following her, several minutes later.

"Alright, I will," he smiled back.

He went to sit there... and it was seriously one of the most comfortable chairs he'd ever sit on. _'No wonder Shibuya-san almost never left his office.'_ he thought, but his thoughts of the heavenly chair was soon interrupted by the office phone ringing.

This is it!

-.-

This time John was not disappointed. The last phonecall from Masuda was the most shocking of all. When the morbid revelation came, he just stared at the hourglass in disbelief for very long minutes.

"It can't be," he quietly said.

All this time he had been carrying around the item as if it was an 'ordinary haunted thing', but this took the cake.

Disgusting. Yet at the same time he could understand the reason behind this ghost's anger and the store owner's behavior.

Outside the boss's office he barely heard the sound of vacuum cleaner dying down, as he recalled the past week and wrote it down for the boss to read. There was a knock on the door. He blinked himself out of a reverie.

"Come in."

It was Madoka.

"How is the investigation going?"

"...nearly done, all that is left is an exorcism."

No no no, he wasn't about to tell her what he had been carrying around all this time.

"That's great!" She exclaimed, "then, would you like some coffee or tea?"

"I would like some tea, Mori-san."

"Coming right away."

There were some sounds coming from the outside the building.

"Oh, I think we have visitors," she smiled, "I'll go greet them, you don't mind staying her, do you?"

"Please go ahead. I'd love to go, but I need to finish up this report for Shibuya-san."

"Alright, will be back soon!"

**To be continued...**

**Author's note: **I was supposed to have uploaded this days ago, but I got a bit distracted, and when I wanted to upload this yesterday I spotted some mistakes and in some places the story didn't flow the way I wanted it to be.

The last of the trilogy will be uploaded after Twofold is finished, which isn't going to happen for at least several months. How's that for torture eh?


End file.
